How to Make Choux à la Crème (French Vanilla Cream Puffs)

Prepare to fall head over heels for my authentic Choux à la Crème. These light and airy French cream puffs are delightfully crackly on top, tender in the middle, and stuffed with crème diplomate and whipped cream for an elegant, bite-sized treat that’s sure to wow.

French pâtisserie basics are a pastry chef’s color palette  — once you know how to make a few, a whole world of possibilities unfolds before you. First, choose your doughy base: pâte sucrée for tarts, brioche for donuts and twisted bread art, thin crepe shells for handheld street snacks, or choux pastry for éclairs and cream puffs.

Next, choose your favorite filling: crème pâtissière (vanilla pastry cream) is delightful in its own right, but also acts as the base for crème légère and diplomat cream, among others. There’s also chantilly crème (sweetened whipped cream), French buttercream and white chocolate mousse depending on what you’re going for.

Today we’re making the choux au craquelin recipe I’ve been perfecting since my pastry school days. Think of it as the sweet pastry equivalent of Dutch crunch bread. It all starts with basic pâte a choux dough, which is responsible for the smooth-topped original cream puffs that make up a croquembouche. 

To transform it into choux craquelin we then make a quasi-cookie dough base that’s rolled out and placed atop the cream puff dough before baking. The resulting crispy-topped mini choux buns are then filled with vanilla cream diplomate and a swirl of feather light whipped cream to make choux a la creme — your new favorite dessert. 

⭐ Why You’ll Love This French Cream Puffs Recipe 

• Perfectly Portioned - As a pastry chef, I’ll never shy away from dessert. However, there are times when a giant slice of cake or chocolatey tart is just too much for one sitting. These delicate chou a la creme are the ideal two-bite-sized solution.
• Endlessly Adaptable - I mentioned earlier that once you have the basics of French pastry down, you can let your creativity shine. While pastry cream is generally vanilla-flavored, my post gives you tons of ideas on how to flavor it so you’ll never run out of unique choux pastry fillings.
• Simple & Snazzy - These light golden-brown, crackly topped rounds of deliciousness are fancy enough for a black tie event, but are equally welcome at Easter or Mother’s Day brunch! Even better? They’re made with relatively short list of ingredients, most of which are pantry staples. 

🍴Ingredients 

• Unsalted Butter - If possible, opt for European-style butter, which is higher in fat than American-style butter. I also recommend looking for grass-fed, organic, and cultured butter for the very best, most buttery taste.
• Light Brown Sugar - I find that the extra molasses flavor in dark brown sugar overpowers the delicate choux cream puffs, while white sugar yields a bland craquelin. If you need a substitution, light muscovado sugar is your best bet.
• Salt  - A little bit of salt is the perfect supporting cast for the flavors in this traditional French pastry. 
• Bread Flour - Bread flour has a higher protein content than all-purpose, which aids in gluten development. While it might seem counterintuitive, the added gluten yields a lighter choux cream puff texture. 
• Water & Milk Powder - There’s an eternal debate about whether milk or water should be used to make choux paste. Water (or its steam) helps to create lift, and an all-water dough bakes up lighter and crispier than one with milk. Milk adds fat for tenderness and natural sugar for better browning. I like elements of each method, so I like to use water with a small amount of lower-fat milk powder. If you don’t have milk powder, you can use __ water with __ milk (whole, 2%, or 1%). 
• Eggs - You’ll need whole eggs for the pâte a choux and egg yolks for the diplomat cream.
• Whipped Cream - Heavy cream and vanilla syrup is mixed in a whipped cream dispenser for the EASIEST whipped cream recipe around. 
• Creme Diplomat - In addition to what has already been listed, you’ll need whole milk, a vanilla bean (or vanilla paste or extract), white sugar, cornstarch, and plain gelatin to make this dreamy cream filling. 

See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

⏲️ Substitutions & Variations

Not interested in filling your cream puffs with whipped cream or creme diplomat? Here's some other fillings to consider!

• Vanilla Bavarian Cream
• Passion Fruit Curd
• Chocolate Pastry Cream
• Meyer Lemon Curd
• Strawberry Cream

This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you replace or add any ingredients, please let us know how it turned out in the comments below!

📖 How to Make Choux a la Creme: Step-by-Step Instructions

In a small pot, bring your water, milk powder and butter to a simmer/slight boil.

Add the flour and salt into your pot at once continuing to cook on high heat and stirring the mixture with a spatula continuously until a dough starts to form and a thin film appears at the base of the pot. This should take 3-5 minutes and the dough should reach 175F.

Place the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer and using a paddle attachment, start to mix in order to cool down the dough to 145F.

Add eggs to the choux dough one at a time, continuously mixing with the paddle attachment. You'll know that your dough is at the right consistency when the dough forms a V-shape as it hangs off the spatula and/or paddle attachment.

Transfer the choux dough to a piping bag and snip off the tip of the bag to create a ½ inch opening.

Pipe one-inch rounds of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet leaving space between each cream puff - two to three inches. Leave at least 3 inches in between each dollop for when the choux will begin to inflate (about 6 on each baking sheet).

Take the frozen cream puff craquelin out of the freezer and use a 2-inch round cutter to cut circles of crust out. Then, gently place one disc on top of your piped batter.

Place the cream puffs into the oven baking for 5 minutes before turning down the temperature to 350°F for an additional 25 minutes or until browned. Then, crack the oven and allow the choux to cool naturally within the oven for about 20 minutes.

With a serrated knife, cut the tops off of each choux puff. Pipe the diplomat cream into the choux cavity, and top with whipped cream. Pace the top on each cream puff and enjoy!

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips

• Use a guide. I have a baking mat that is marked with 2-inch rounds, which helps me pipe out macarons and cream puffs that are equally sized. If you don’t have one, you can easily make your own by using parchment paper, a pencil, and a 2-inch biscuit cutter or cookie cutter (whatever you’re using to cut the craquelin toppers). If you use this method, make sure to flip the parchment over so you don’t get any graphite in the mix.
• No piping bag? No problem! You can either use a zip-top bag with the corner snipped off, or make a pastry bag with parchment paper. 
• Let the baked choux puffs cool completely to room temperature before cutting open and filling them. This will both prevent the cream puffs from drying out and prevent the creme legere and whipped cream from melting into a soggy mess.
• If you don't have a wooden spoon, a sturdy silicone spatula works well for mixing the pâte à choux on medium heat until it forms a smooth paste that pulls away from the sides of the pan.
• For those times when you're short on large eggs, remember that the key to a light pastry dough is not the quantity but the quality of mixing; start with fewer eggs and add gradually until the dough reaches the desired silky texture.

💭 Recipe FAQs 

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